The invention relates to animal restraining apparatus and, particularly, to a tether for confining an animal, such as a dog, to a specified center region within the open box of a pickup truck, or in any other designated area, while allowing optimum freedom of movement.
For many years, animals and, in particular, pets such as dogs, have been carried in the open box of pickup trucks without any restraint or confinement, and thus were in a situation where they could readily be thrown from the truck in the event the driver made a sudden turn or move, or could jump from the truck for any of various reasons. Such a situation could cause grave injury to the animal. Some owners, concerned for the safety of their animals, have tied the animal with a rope to one of the only available tie-down hooks in their pickup, which commonly are located on either side of the box. However, although tied, the animal still could fall, or jump, from the truck on the side thereof to which the rope was tied.
Accordingly, there has been much activity in recent years by individuals and by various organizations, in behalf of improving safety conditions when transporting an animal, particularly in the back of an open pickup or other vehicle, to prevent the occurrence of such mishaps. In fact, such widespread concern has resulted in the passage of several laws at various governmental levels, prohibiting the transporting of a dog, or other animal, in the open box of a pickup truck or other similar vehicle, without some type of restraining apparatus capable of confining the animal to a specified safe area.
Various harness, leash, and/or tether apparatus have been developed which provide various levels of restraint for an animal, such as a dog, not only in the open box of a pickup truck but also on the seats of an automobile, or in other vehicles. Typical of such apparatus are tethers which provide adequate restraint and thus safety from falling for an animal in a given situation, but which may fail to supply adequate protection in other situations. Most of these apparatus which provide adequate restraint to prevent an animal from falling from, or jumping from, the vehicle, also correspondingly restrict natural movement of the animal. Thus, the animal is uncomfortably restrained or hampered, and/or may become entangled in the restraining apparatus. Conversely, other typical apparatus which allow adequate movement of the animal to allow it to be comfortable, as a rule do not provide adequate protection to prevent the animal from falling from the vehicle.
To date there is no provision, and no one has seen fit to provide, some type of restraining apparatus near the center of the open box behind a pickup truck cab, to allow securing an animal safely within a given area of the box. However, even if a tie-down of some type were available to which a dog could be tied, such a restraining configuration fails to provide the animal both flexibility of movement and safety, as mentioned above. An active animal can become tangled in the restraining rope with resulting injury. In the case of a large animal, where sufficient rope is used to allow it to stand fully erect comfortably, there is the possibility that there is sufficient length of rope to allow the animal to fall from the side of the truck.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to provide a tethering apparatus which not only provides maximum protective restraint for the animal, but which also allows it optimal natural movement, and thus as much comfort as possible while being transported, or when confined in some other environment, while using the restraining apparatus.
To this end, the invention provides a relatively simple tether configuration which positively restrains an animal within a selected area of a movable vehicle, or within some other stationary location, while allowing maximum freedom of movement consistent with the degree of restraint required. To this end, the invention provides the advantageous configuration of a folded-back rope configuration, with an integral loop formed in a depending "floating" end of the folded-back portion of the configuration, wherein the opposite "lead" end of the rope which is attached to the animal, is first passed through the integral loop of the floating end prior to being attached to the animal. The resulting configuration allows the tether to collapse when the animal is not pulling against it, that is, is not being actively restrained, but which quickly tightens to confine the animal to the preselected area when it attempts to move, or is forced to move, to the extremes of the designated area. When the tether is in the semi-collapsed state, the animal is allowed optimum horizontal and vertical movement for lying down, standing on all four legs, or even standing on its hind legs.
In addition, the invention readily is adapted to a multiple animal tether embodiment for restraining at least two animals within the selected area.
The invention may be used to restrain an animal in an environment other than that of a movable vehicle or of a large transporting crate, that is, may be employed for restraining an animal in a kennel, or in any designated area in a private yard or a commercial animal establishment.
These and additional features and associated advantages of the invention will be apparent by consideration of the drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.